Newark Peppers In 1913, McKechnie had his worst season as a full-time player, batting only .134. However, Yankees manager
Frank Chance thought McKechnie had a keen baseball mind, and had him sit next to him on the bench during games. Two years later, McKechnie got his first taste of managerial duties, when he served as player-manager of the
Newark Peppers of the
Federal League, leading the team to a 54–45 record.
Post–playing career After he retired as a player, he managed for a year in the minors before assuming the helm of the Pirates in 1922. He managed the Pirates from 1922 to 1926,
St. Louis Cardinals in 1928, St. Louis Cardinals again after they rehired him in 1929, Boston Braves from 1930 to 1937, and Cincinnati Reds from 1938 to 1946. He compiled 1,896 wins and 1,723 losses for a .524 winning percentage over his managerial career. The Cardinals finished the
1928 season in first place with a record 95 wins and 59 losses. McKechnie left the club after the World Series.
Billy Southworth started the
1929 season with 43 wins and 45 losses.
Gabby Street managed for a game before McKechnie returned as manager. In eight years, he had a winning record four times while finishing in the first division (top four) twice. In 1933, they finished 83–71 to have their first winning season in twelve years, doing so while finishing fourth, nine games behind New York. They finished 78–73 the next year and finished 16 games behind St. Louis for another fourth-place finish. The bottom fell out in 1935, a season in which
Babe Ruth returned to play in the city of
Boston for the first time in 16 years, with Fuchs also giving him duties of vice president and assistant manager, although these were more ceremonial than anything. According to Allen, McKechnie claimed that Ruth's presence made it nearly impossible to enforce discipline. Ruth drew a huge salary, and lived apart from the team on the road. Despite fielding essentially the same team that finished fourth a year earlier, the Braves crumbled to a record of 38–115, the worst record in modern National League history and the second worst in modern major league history. The team improved in the next two years, going 71–83 (with three ties) and 79–73 before McKechnie was hired to manage the Cincinnati Reds in 1938.
Cincinnati Reds and later career According to one baseball reference work, McKechnie had a poor sense of direction, which did not improve when, as the Reds' manager, he began traveling by plane. He arrived in an airport when the Reds were to play the Pirates at
Forbes Field. He hailed a taxi and asked the driver to take him to the Schenley Hotel. "I never heard of it", said the driver. McKechnie gave him the names of the nearby streets. "Never heard of them either", the cabbie said. "How long have you been driving a cab here? the manager asked. "Twenty-five years and then some", said the driver, "But so help me I never heard of the Schenley Hotel! You must be in the wrong town! Where do you think you are?" "Pittsburgh", McKechnie said. "Pittsburgh, hell!" retorted the driver. "You're really lost. This is Detroit!" McKechnie was an unusual kind of manager for his era. A very religious man, he did not smoke, drink alcohol or use profanity. When he had a problem player who was likely to go out carousing, McKechnie's simple solution was to room with him. owner
Powel Crosley Jr. (center), circa 1940. In his first season with the Reds, he led them to an 82–68–1 record, finishing 4th in the NL behind the
Chicago Cubs. In his second year, he led them to a 97–57–2 record, finishing 1st by games over the
St. Louis Cardinals. This was McKechnie's third pennant, with each occurring with a different team. In the
World Series that year, they were swept by the
New York Yankees. In the following year, the Reds managed to improve, winning 100 games (a team first) while winning the NL once again, this time by 12 games over the
Brooklyn Dodgers. In the
World Series that year, they beat the
Detroit Tigers in seven games. The Reds didn't win more than 90 games in the rest of McKechnie's tenure, but they did manage to finish with a winning record in four of his six final years, including a 2nd place in 1943. 1946 was his final year with the team, managing them to a 64–86 record (with 2 ties), with
Hank Gowdy managing the final four games. His last game managed was on September 25 at
St. Louis, winning 6–0. He was hired as a
coach to be the
right-hand man of young
Cleveland Indians manager
Lou Boudreau the following year. Once, when
Larry Doby (the first African American player in the
American League was playing for the Indians, McKechnie prevented him from going up a barrier to confront a racist heckler, saying that it would "ruin you, not him". The Boudreau–McKechnie Indians won a
World Series in 1948. McKechnie coached with Boudreau for five seasons, with the Indians (1947–49) and
Boston Red Sox (1952–53). McKechnie was inducted into the
Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962 and into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 1967.
Managerial record ==Personal life==